The hidden truths
by Dalnim
Summary: My take on how Lily and James got together. Lily hears a heart to heart talk between James and Sirius. M to be safe.


**A man behind the mask**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

**Summary: My take on how Lily and James got together. Lily hears a heart to heart talk between Sirius and James.**

** A/N: This is my first fanfiction and english is not my native language, so there is probably going to be a lot of spelling errors and stuff. Try to be understanding. I hope you enjoy, thank you.**

Lily Evans had always taken her responsibilities seriously and that night was no different. It was her seventh year in Hogwarts the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and she had been given the honor of being named the Head Girl. All in all her last year at Hogwarts was perfect, if not for the one person: James Potter. James Potter had been named a Head Boy and not even in her wildest dreams could she figure out why. James Potter was an arrogant, selfish, bullying toerag always pranking someone with his best friends Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, or the Marauders as they call themselves. Potter had annoyed Lily from the moment they met in the Hogwarts Express and as the years went by he became even more annoying. Every year since third year he had asked Lily out every day at least twice and every time she had said no. He just couldn't get it into his thick head that she wasn't interested, and what annoyed her even more, was that every other girl in the school would take the chance to go out with James Potter in a heartbeat. James Potter was attractive and devilishly handsome; Lily couldn't deny that - she wasn't blind after all, but the way he runs his hand through his hair annoyed Lily to no end.

And James Potter was what Lily was thinking when she was patrolling in the halls of Hogwarts at Halloween night. 'How, just how in the name of Merlin did he get the Head Boy badge?' she thought. 'He doesn't even come patrolling in time. What were the professors thinking? Did he do some kind of compulsion charm on the staff?'

Her musings were interrupted by a concerned voice: "Moony! Have you seen Prongs? I can't find him anywhere."

"No I haven't, like I have told you a hundred times. Calm down Padfoot, we will find him. Have you checked the map?"

"No he had it with him…"

The voices belonged to Black and Lupin. 'I can't see Potter with them… Whatever now is my chance to get them back for all the pranks…' Lily thought. Just as she was about to confront them something held her back. She heard Remus telling Black that he was going to find Peter and ask him if he had seen James and asking Black to search the astronomy tower.

Lily didn't know why she followed Black to the astronomy tower. Maybe it was her curiosity or maybe it was the concern in the Black's eyes, but follow she did. Lily cast a disillusion charm and a silencing charm on her and run after Black. He walked fast up the stairs to the highest part of the tower and opened the door.

"Prongs?" he whispered, "Are you here?"

A silence was met his calling, but when Lily finally reached the top he heard Black's voice sounding even more concerned than before.

"Prongs, what the hell are you doing? What's wrong?"

Lily peeked from the door and what she saw made her stop dead. James Potter was standing on the edge of the astronomy tower. 'What the hell is he playing at?' Lily thought.

"Come on James, get down." Black tried. "Get down and talk to me, tell me what's wrong."

"Mum's ill again, Sirius." Lily heard him say faintly. "They – They say she won't l-live through the year."

Lily couldn't see his face, but she could tell from his voice and body language that he was crying.

"No, she can't… they said she was getting better." Black stuttered. Potter silently handed him a letter he had been clutching in his hand.

Lily could see the tears running from Black's eyes when he read the letter. Lily was overly confused; she was hoping to catch Marauders planning a prank and she finds Potter and Black crying because Potter's mum was ill. 'Wait, why would Black cry when Potter's mum was ill? It's not like his mother was dying.'

"I'm so tired Sirius." James whispered.

"I know, but standing in there won't help." Sirius said shakily. "Come down, and we'll talk about this."

And finally James came down from the edge to the safety of the walls. Lily let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. They sat in the silence leaning the walls before James spoke:

"I don't know what I'm going to do Sirius… after dad… It's just too much at the same time."

"I know mate, I miss him too... But he would have kicked your ass in a duel and gave you severe talking to if he had seen you standing on that edge tonight. I mean what the hell were you thinking? Leaving me and your mum alone? And what about Lily? You were going to give her up to Snivellus too?"

For the first time in the whole night Lily saw life in James' eyes.

James let out a shaky laugh. "I know Sirius; I don't know what I was thinking… And she's your mum too."

"Yeah"

They sat a moment in silence until James spoke:

"You think she would care… if-if I was gone?"

"Of course she would care! Who would ask her out ten times a day, if it wasn't for you? Who would she yell at if you weren't there? She would miss you mate; she would feel her day was incomplete without you."

It took Lily a moment before she realized that they weren't talking about his mother anymore. They were talking about her. And what was worse deep inside she knew Sirius was right; she would miss him. This year James hadn't asked her out as much as before and she had felt empty. Now that she thought back every day that she had been on a bad mood was when James hadn't asked her out. 'No, no, no no! I have _not _fallen for James Potter! I swore I would never fall for him.'

"You really think so?"

"I know so." Sirius said confidently. "Anyway, we have a new target."

"Who?" James asked his body stiffing. Lily saw anger passing through his hazel eyes.

"Hufflepuffs Jeffrey Smith and Matthew McCoyle" Sirius said mirroring James' demeanor.

"What – What did they do?" James asked. Lily noticed that he sounded like he'd rather go without knowing.

"They… They raped a second year. She doesn't wish anybody to know. Her friend found out and came to us."

"So, Voldemort has reached other house too, not just Slytherin." James said sadly. "What about the Slytherins? Have the death eaters in training made any moves?"

"I haven't heard anything." Sirius said.

"We need to make a plan, but that will have to wait till next week. And then we'll prank them to next year.

As they stood watching the sunrise Sirius spoke:

"Do you remember our first prank?"

"Yeah. It was the first week of school we saw Snivellus, Malfoy and Avery bullying a first-year Rawenclaw and decided to try that prank dad told me about before I left to Hogwarts." James said smiling. "It took them a week to get rid of the pink color in their clothes and hair."

"Yea, that was classic." Sirius sighed. "We have come a long way from there. It's sad how many victims or their friends have come to us for help."

"Yes, but you know they can't go to the teachers, they can do nothing."

"Unfortunately… But dad always gave us good ideas for new pranks so we didn't have to use the same ones." Sirius grinned.

"Yea, he told me once that he and mum pranked the whole school many times when they were young." James grinned.

"What?! She was a prankster in school?" Sirius asked astonished. "Prongs, why didn't you tell me? All those times she ranted me about pranking the house elves."

"Well, it was fun watching you suffer." James said grinning mischievously.

"What kind of brother are you?" Sirius pouted.

Lily almost laughed out loud. She was seeing a whole new side of James and Sirius; there was no sign of the arrogant bullying toerag Potter or the ladies' man Black. There were just two best friends and brothers in all but blood.

"Prongs…"

"Mmh?"

"You know… if you just told Lily why we prank people and show her this side of you, maybe she would…" Sirius started, but James cut him off:

"I know Sirius, but you know that I don't betray our sources' trust for anything, not even Lily. You know that I love her and would give my life for her in a heartbeat, but I don't sacrifice other people lives for anything."

"Yea, you're right."

"You know its full moon in the weekend…" James said grinning mischievously.

"Time to let Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs ride again. You think Moony would like to go explore the forest again?" Sirius said mirroring James.

"Well, I think we can convince him…"

"Yea, just need to make a little trip to Honeydukes' chocolate section…" Sirius laughed.

"Sun's almost up… I think I'm going to fly a bit, perfect time to do that…"

"You love flying too much..." Sirius complained good-naturally.

"That too, but mostly I'm just trying to avoid Lily… she's gonna kill me for missing patrol and I'm not in the mood for that yet."

"Oh right, not to mention Moony, he's probably gonna kill you for worrying us." Sirius smirked.

"Damn…"

Sirius laughed and started walking towards the door and Lily. Lily slipped quickly back to the stairs as James spoke:

"Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks mate."

"Don't mention it bro."

Lily spent the whole morning pondering what she knew about James Potter and what she had find out at night. The more she thought about it the more she realized that she had been wrong all along. James didn't prank people for fun; he pranked the bullies and Voldemort's followers. What astonished her most was that the student's really came to them and asked for help. She also realized that he wasn't selfish; his friendship with his friends was more than it looked like; it was more like they were brothers. She pondered were the names Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs came from for a while, but then the answer came to her; they were animagi. She had figured out Moony a long time ago, since she knew that Remus was a werewolf, but then she remembered waking up once in a night of full moon and seeing a black dog and a stag disappearing into the forest. She had waved away as a dream, because it was insane thinking that a dog and a stag would ride together. When she now thought about all the discoveries she had made, she realized that she had fallen for James Potter even more than before and this time she accepted it. She decided it was time to do something about it and that she did.

Lily walked back into the common room by the time for breakfast and saw James coming out of his dorms.

"Lily I'm really sorry…" he started put was cut off by Lily who astonished the whole common room by snogging him senseless and asking him out in the Hogsmeade weekend. She left the common room leaving behind a very stunned, but happy James.

**THE END**

**Authors note: Well, what do you think of my first fanfiction? Please review.**


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